Rav Yitzchak Breitowitz: Transform Your Shabbat: Creation, Revelation and Salvation

[Music] You see your tomorrow. [Music] Okay. Hi everybody. Thank you for coming. Uh first let me just announce the dedications. Uh the shar tonight is dedicated uh for praying for the victory of our soldiers in all fronts of the war, the lasting unity of amra and for all of those whose health has been affected by the war and obviously for the safe return of all of the hostages who are still alive. Uh leotan elevation of the soul for yeets banzar. And then we have other dedications Shaina Basster Mala and Moshe Yitzk Ben Rifka Minva that they should be Zoha to the braha of of children uh dedicated by Malainkle. Uh the entire series during the month of Adar is sponsored by Reena and Mark Welletow in honor and appreciation of our graduates for the safety and success of the Sahal and return of the hostages and Nishmas Harav is benfoil. And finally I wants to thank all of those who have contributed to the matan of fund. Many of the recipients have expressed their gratitude and brought so many sim for the but you know again the cycle of stuck never ends. So uh we hopefully helps people over Purim but now we have to think about helping people as we approach the holiday of Pesak which is even more expensive and uh therefore uh I guess not this week but pretty soon there will be what is called moim uh which is the collection of funds to give out for people to help them meet the PES expenses. Um obviously uh I am not in my regular time. I am here an hour or an hour and a half early and uh that is because my yeshiva that I work Orsame we recently had the very great tragedy of losing the founder of Osame the Rosha yeshiva Ravniller of blessed memory who founded Orsame more than 50 years ago and he had been ill for around three years and he passed away shortly before Purim and all of us are still kind of in a devastated state but Tonight uh shortly after the Shiva there's a special memorial service uh at 8:30 and although you know technically I could have had an excuse because I would to be here but Rabbi Poston was kind enough to uh rearrange the schedule so I would be able to return to our uh for the memorial service and in addition to all the dedications I'd like to exercise my prerogative to also dedicate the sheer lizer uh sadik liv and again it's a tremendous tremendous loss. Um the truth is most of the present students in ars didn't even know him that well because he had been sick. He had not really been in yeshiva except for Roshashana he would come or something like that. Uh but for those of us who have been around a little longer uh he really was uh kind of a father. Uh and many people expressed the idea that they felt they lost a father. His office was right next to mine and uh in his healthy years, he would constantly pop in uh to tell me a story or an insight or a joke or whatever it would be. And um it always had a point to it, meaning it wasn't just entertainment, although it was entertaining. Uh but he had all sorts of beautiful, very deep insights. A very, very brilliant man, not only in Torah, but uh everything, politics, history, uh baseball was one of his specialties. Um he knew high culture and he knew low culture even Abbott and Castello you know whatever it would be he had a whole wealth of knowledge but he was able he was able to draw on that knowledge draw on every little bit of information that he absorbed in his life and was able to derive Torah lessons and I think that's an important you know insight for us something to aspire to you know we go through different things we're not always in a 100% Torah environment You know we we deal with the secular world in various ways but a Jew kind of learns from everything. We try to learn from every type of experience says who is a wise person that somehow we learn from everybody and we take a lesson in how we serve God and you know I think Rabbi Schiller in his own life exemplified that and that's one of the things he passed down to us. So again, I'm very grateful to uh Rabbi Poston uh for rearranging. I know how difficult it is to rearrange schedules and I do very much very much appreciate this. Okay, so uh we're dealing with uh the building of the Mishkun. Now you might be wondering, didn't we deal with that last week and didn't we deal with that the week before and didn't we deal with that the week before that? Yes, and we're going to deal with it next week, too. Five parotes of the Torah, five weeks dealing with the Mishkan. Gee, we know that the Torah is very economical when it comes to words. The Torah does not convey things in two words if it can convey it in one word. And yet the Mishkan on and on and on and on. Uh every time you get a full length repetition, God gives says it to Moshe A to Z. And then it says Moshe tells it to us A to Z. And then we do it A to Z. The Torah could have just said the Jewish people did whatever Moshe was told, etc. But every single time it reiterates it. And I'm not going to give you that. I'm not actually that's not the point of my talk tonight. I'm not going to give you a full answer to this very difficult question. uh other than to highlight the obvious point that there's something so central in the idea of Mishkan that it bears constant reiteration and constant repetition because remember the key verse that inaugurated the whole building of the Mishkan thei mikdash make for me a sanctuary a holy place a holy space so I will rest in them. So the commentaries make the point it doesn't say God rests in it. Rather the idea of a mishkun is the idea of making a sanctuary in your heart and in your soul for the almighty. There's a famous beautiful song taken from Rabbi Lazarus Kari this one of the great cabalists in the time of the aril in my heart I will conduct I will construct a sanctuary I mean was actually a beautiful shaker melody about sanctuary but say it's bas it's actually based on this idea that is that's what life is out. Life is about making our heart and our soul a dwelling place for the almighty, a sanctuary for God. Do we always live up to that? Certainly not. I at least I'll speak for myself. I certainly do not always live up to that. But that's the aspiration and that's why it's repeated over and over and over again because the fundamental ideas of life have to be reiterated because maybe our head might grasp it by learning it once but to go from the head to the heart is quite a long distance and sometimes things need to be repeated, reiterated, integrated so they influence you, so they elevate you and that's kind of again it's not complete answer obviously but this is part of what's going on with all of this repetition about the Mishkan the Mishkhan of course in the desert the Mishkhan was a traveling sanctuary of course once we get to Jerusalem we have the beta mikdash but it the idea is the same it is symbolic of the presence of God in our heart and in our soul and when God is not in our heart and our soul the building becomes a building in fact the medish tells us when destroyed the first temple was very proud in his arrogance. He said I have driven God out of his house. And the metric actually has the almighty speaking to saying don't think you drove me out of my house. I didn't live there anymore. When the Jewish people no longer had God in their heart and in their soul, I leave. So you destroyed a vacant. It's a nice house, nice hotel, but nobody was living there anymore. That's the idea. Because essentially God is in the temple when God is in our heart. Therefore, when God is not in our heart, God is not in the temple. And that's why the temple gets destroyed. Meaning you can't destroy the house of God when God is there. But you can destroy it when God isn't there because it's simply an empty building at that particular point. This is what the medra says. God told Nukatnar one way or or the other. So, first let me start with a very very technical point. Uh I know some people are very much into the Jewish calendar. So you you would appreciate this. Other people are not into the Jewish calendar. They won't appreciate this. But I'll just give you a little technical point for those who enjoy it. It'll only be five minutes. And that is, you know, anyone who studies the the Torah reading of the week, the paratva knows that uh sometimes two parios are combined and sometimes two partial are separated. Uh and the normal rule is the following. uh when we have a regular year a non-leap year without an extra month so the partiote will tend certain partial will be combined because otherwise you'd have too many parti for too few weeks in leap years when you have four extra weeks we separate now vak pud this week's para and next week's para are normally together on non- leap years and they're separated on leap years that's the normal pattern Now this year is not a leap year. We don't have a secondar. So you would expect as it were that Vakob should be read together because this is a non-leap year. And yet lo and behold this is a very comparatively rare instance where even though it's a non-leap year the yakil pakud are going to read two different weeks this week and next week. uh this could be called an anomaly so to speak. It's a yakl it is an exception to the norm. So the rule is the following. This only happens when there's a particular configuration in the Jewish calendar where Roshashana as it did this past you know this year 5785 falls out on Thursday Friday meaning Wednesday night Thursday Friday and the month of Keshvan and the month of which can sometimes have variable 29:30 both have 30 days and based on that when that happens inevitably Pesak The first seder is going to be Saturday night mo Shabbat. So because of that unique configuration, there happens to be one extra Shabbat that's not covered in the Yumpt because the Shabas is right before PES. As a result, even though most of the joined parot are going to be joined, but there has to be one extra Shabbat. Soak bakud was chosen to separate. So just remember this you can really impress your friends. You can ask a friend because uh not too many people know this particular bit of bit of data and that is hey how come you know are separate this year and you will have the answer obvious everybody knows when rash is Thursday Friday and are both 30 days and therefore the first su is Saturday night you have one extra shabas in the whole year in which the parot have to be separated in order to cover that shabbat and you will be you people will be very impressed with your with your knowledge and your area edition. Okay, little technical point for those who enjoy the Jewish calendar. But what I want to talk about is this. On one hand, we're reading about the Mishkan, the tabernacle, the tabernacle of space, physical space. And yet this para brings to mind another tabernacle, another temple, a sanctuary of time. Again, let's let's look at just the beginning of the para vakil. Moshe gathers the people and he addresses them. Again, just a little bit of timing here. Rashi explains this is the day after Yom Kipur, the first Yom Kipur. Remember what happened? There was the sin of the golden calf and God wanted to destroy the Jewish people and make a private covenant with Moshe. And Moshe refused. He didn't want any private deals. He said, "You erase them, erase me." And Moshe prays and he dabbins and does and and helps to causes Clai to do Chuva. And finally on Roshes, God says, "Come up for the second 40 days and bring down the second tablets because you had broken the first ones." And Moshe comes down. What day does he come down with the second loot? Yum kipur. People don't realize this. The day of atonement is the day that Moshe brought down the second loot. In some ways, it's more of a day of receiving the Torah than even shuos. We heard the ten commandments. But the loot that Moshe brought down the 17th of Thomas 40 days after were smashed. Yum kipur the loot the second loot. So Mosher Rabenu brought down that second. By the way as an aside I'm going to digress occasionally. Let me share with you a very beautiful thought of the mabit or the mabit. Moshe ben Yoseph Trani was the head of the bin ofat in the time of Yoseph Kairo. So very very esteemed time of the Ariza and you know this was this is when was the dominant dominant Torah center of Israel. So the mabit was not only a great postk he was also a Jewish philosopher and he wrote a work of Jewish philosophy that has never been translated into English. It's called baselim the house of god and uh he makes the following observation. It's a well-known idea that the decalogue is divided into two, right? The first five are considered to be commandments between man and God. Uh and the second five are largely commandments between man and man. Okay, that's a well-known distinction although there are some questions on that because commandment number five for example which should belong to the man God is honor your father and mother. Okay, but there are reasons because essentially your relationship to God is connected to your relationship to your parents who gave you life. Okay, but the mabit goes off on a different point. He says we assume that the surface area of the engraving covered the same area in the sense that you know the surface the that was covered that was engraved would be the same. Now the problem is the first five have many more words than the second five. The second five are very staccato. Don't kill, don't steal, don't give false testimony. Which means if the surface area of the engraving was the same for the man to man as the man to God, that means by definition the letters of the man to man must have been larger letters than the man to God. So when Moshe comes down from the mountain at Mount Si and people see him from a distance and they put on their long-d distanceance glasses and they want to squint and see what he's bringing down, what will they be able to read first, the manto man. So Mab makes the point that sometimes, you know, we have a very distorted uh idea of what it means to be a religious Jew. We think you know a religious Jew you wear it's fill in you keep kosher you keep chabas and of of course that is obviously very important but we don't automatically associate being honest in business integrity kindness we kind of look at that maybe as universal values but they're not you know Jewish distinctly Jewish and yet you see that the interpersonal is even given a greater prominence than be between man and God because in the Luke The second five were larger than the first. Okay, that's my bad. Okay, but going back to the para. So Moshe came down on Yamiper with the Vel. He gathers the people is the day after Yum Kipper. He assembles the people and he's now going to command them to contribute towards the Mishkan. But before he does that, he seems to talk about another topic. Six days shall you work and on the seventh day it shall be the Shabbat of God. You shall not do any type of ma. Don't do any type of work. Of course, this is a reiteration of the fourth commandment. This is not the first time we've uh encountered Shabbat. This is at least the third the third or the fourth time depending on whether you count you know Genesis as the first reference and and the like. But Moshe is commanding them about doing not doing sorry doing work for six days and resting on Shabas. Now the question is Shabas is important. Why is it here? Why is it here exactly? So Rashi explains that this is not just a general exhortation about chabas but he's specifically connected to the Mishkan that even though I'm I'm giving you a commandment that thou shalt construct this tabernacle on the day of Shabas even the importance of building a temple does not override the sanctity of Shabbas. This is not just the generic commandment of Shabas. This is a specific prohibition. Do not build the tabernacle on Shabas. Not only that, but the connection is so essential that the very definition of what is a prohibited labor are those activities that are involved in building the tabernacle. The the famous idea that there are 39 prohibited categories of work on Shabas. You know, the Torah doesn't say there are a few activities the Torah mentions. The Torah says don't start a fire. Uh it mentions uh don't uh plow, don't harvest. But you know, if I ask you where does the Torah say don't cook on Shabbat, don't write on Shabas. Doesn't say. The only way we know these things are prohibited is because these were activities that were connected to the construction of the tabernacle in various ways. And therefore whatever is involved in the construction of the mishkun is forbidden and shut. So what is often expressed is that the mishkun represents the holiness of time. I'm sorry. The mishkun is holiness of space. The shabas is holiness of time. And the that you don't build a Mishka on Shabas actually says Judaism is more concerned on the deepest level with the holiness of time more than the holiness of space because the holiness of time you can take with you wherever you go in life. You see this is a certain paradox in Judaism. On one hand, we say God is everywhere. God is accessible everywhere. In a sense, God exists as much in uh uh Fargo, North Dakota as he exists in the Bas Mikdash. God is everywhere. On the other hand, Judaism obviously has a certain hierarchy of holy space. Arit Israel is holier than any other place. Ba mikdash within the basa mikdash even there are many many levels till you come to the keshak dash so there's a certain paradox in which on one hand god transcends place on the other hand there are special places and the understanding is when I say a given place is holier that doesn't mean god is here more than there god is everywhere but it means it's more god is more accessible to my ability to receive him. Meaning just like you have a cell phone, right? There are dead zones which can't receive. So God is everywhere. The sound waves are everywhere but I can't pick them up. So the holiness of a mcome is a function of the ability to access that connection. But be it as it may, although we of course believe that places are holier than other places, no question about it. But there's a subtle Yateserhara, there's a subtle evil inclination in that type of thought. That is sometimes when people are not in optimal in the optimal situation, they feel they can't have a connection to God. For example, a person might say, "Oh, if I would be if only I would be in Jerusalem. If only I would be in yeshiva. If only I would have the right family. If only I would have the right circumstances, then I can serve God. But what does God want of me if I'm bereft of all of those things? That's a mistake. Because once you understand that the holiness of time transcends the holiness of space, then it doesn't make a difference where you are. The ability to access God everywhere. every Shabbat I have my beta mikdash within time and that is why the expresses itself that the building of the I'm sorry that the yeah the building of the mikdash or the mishkan cannot be done on chabas because shabas represents a temple a mikdash a connection to god that is even higher and more transcendent than the holiness of space right the holiness of time versus the holiness of of space and that is why Mosher Rabenu introduces the idea of Shabas. Now, not as I say as a general repetition of the fourth commandment, but specifically because of its connection to the uh to the uh to the Mish. Now what's what's interesting is and by the way there are many you know as you know I mean the Torah is interpreted in 70 ways and you know every single word in the Torah has so many different nuances of meaning you know even something like uh do not burn a fire on the day of Shabbat. So so I want to tell you a little story. I may have said it before so forgive me. Uh this happened when I was uh you know I grew up in Hartford, Connecticut and I went to an Orthodox day school but it was a co-ed day school and most of the kids were not even shar Shabas in those days because this was before Salman Shakra this is before the conservative movement had their day school. So any parent conservative reform or orthodox who wanted their kids to have a Jewish education sent them to the Orthodox schools. So the Orthodox schools were not as stratified or polarized as they are today because we went to school with everybody. So when I was in seventh grade, that's when uh the boys and the girls started having their bar mitzvah and bas mitzvah. So I remember that I was invited to a classmate's bar mitzvah in a reformed synagogue. I'm not going to address the issue then. I wasn't uh thinking about it in those terms, but the reformed synagogue was like five a fivemile walk from my house in the summer and Hartford did not have an AIF then. So I was walking, of course, I was I was in better shape then. I was younger. Uh and I'm walking and all of a sudden a car stops by my seventh grade teacher stops by and says, "Can I give you a ride?" who who's a Jewish woman, very very fine woman. Actually, she died recently at like 102. So, she just died very recently. But, uh, she stopped and offered me a ride. And I said, "Well, I can't really go." She says, "Why can't you go? what's what what's so I started saying I was like 12 so I started saying well you know we're not allowed to do work on Shabas and if I go my extra weight is going to cause more consumption of gasoline and that's called a fire on Shabas and you know we're supposed to rest and we're not supposed to do work so so she says to me so let me get this straight you're telling me you can't go into an air conditioned car that's going to take you to the place you need to in 2 minutes because that's called doing work. So instead, you're going to walk five miles without water and that's not called doing work. She says, "I don't get it." So at that point, I was kind of confused and flustered. So I kind of just I just kind of got myself out of there. But you know, you know, it's not a bad question. What's going on here? Yeah. I go into a car, my weight is going to cause a certain minuscule consumption of gasoline that is fire. Got it. But you're telling me walking 5 miles without water in the heat? That's not work. That's okay. Like what's going on? And you know, people always raise the question, too. Well, in the olden days, I'm sure you've heard this, in the olden days, making a fire required, you know, rubbing two sticks together for an hour. Now, what are you saying? flicking an electric light you know it's fire what you know it's not work so the important idea here and this is a generally important idea to keep in mind is Rabi Shimshin Rafal Hersh the great 19th century uh uh German rabbi uh actually explains that the operative word uh for not doing prohibited things on Shabbat which is which we often translate as work or labor he says is a bit of a misnomer Because the definition of mala is not a function of physical exertion but it's a function of mastery or dominion over the raw materials of God's creation. Uh meaning to say the following. God made the world in six days. He rested on the seventh day. Every Shabbat is a celebration that God is the creator and architect of the universe. So what I refrain from on Shabbat is exercising my creative dominion over the raw materials of the universe and therefore of the world. Therefore of her says the very definition of mala involves a certain amount of creative control whether it's uh plowing, planting, harvesting, grinding, cooking, skinning an animal, sewing things. What's going on here is not the work in the sense of physical effort but the transformation of the raw material into something. Uh that's why under Torah law, without getting into all the a purely destructive act, if you simply blow up a building for no constructive purpose, you just want to get rid of a building and you don't plan to do anything positive on the site. As much exertion as that may have taken, it is not a mala under Torah law. It's forbidden rabbitically. Uh but it's not mala because malika requires some constructive activity. So as a result when people make the argument, oh why is turning on a switch uh there's no physical effort. If anything it ought to be worse. It shows a greater mastery, a greater control, a greater dominion over the raw materials of of the universe. Fire itself, the use of fire. Fire is one of the great media that transforms raw materials into finished products and and and the like. So Malaka again refers has um a bit of an idiosyncratic linguistic system. I mean obviously maka and melik are not related. They're two different roots. But raers has an opinion if they share common letters you can unite them. And therefore melik which is dominion and maka which is work or labor share those common letters and therefore the common denominator of mala is dominion and control over the raw materials of nature. Right? This is uh Rafers's idea of maha and that's a very useful definition because it reminds you that the issue is not physical exertion. The issue is creative mastery over the world because I refrain from that mastery to acknowledge that God is the source of creation. Interestingly enough, and this is fascinating, uh the one mastery that is permitted on Shabbat might be the greatest creative act of all, and that's the creation of life, right? The marital intimacy of husband and wife is permitted on Shabbat, even though you might wind up creating a child. And that of course would be the most godly form of creation there is. And yet, precisely there, God is inviting you to become his partner. So there are some inconsistencies here but the inconsistencies themselves are quite beautiful and that is on Shabbat we also on one hand we acknowledge God's mastery and at the same time we acknowledge God's partnership invitation to kind of be a partner with him in the creation of of the world. So, uh, Shabbat is a very, very, very big deal. Needless to say, you know, the, um, the chief rabbi of South Africa, Rabbi Goldstein has created a wonderful project for the past few years, uh, Shabbat project in which he's trying to get a million Jews to keep Shabbat throughout the world, and they designate a Shabbat for that. And you know uh you know the Usher Ginsburg who was not an Orthodox Jew at all. He's a famous Zionist thinker but he went by the pen name. Uh cultural Zionist as opposed to political Zionist. Again he differed with Herzel on a number of things but Akadam did make the famous statement more than the Jews have kept the Shabbas Shabas has kept the Jewish people. And uh there's no no there's no question of the centrality of Shabbat. And we have to think in our own lives. And this is sometimes a little bit of a challenge for religious people here because you know when you're new to Shabbat, everything is special. Everything is wonderful. Everything is unique, exciting. But you keep Shabbat one year, two years, 3 years, four years, 10 years, 50 years. You know at some point it becomes habitual. It becomes second nature which is good. But on the other hand we can sometimes lack the enthusiasm. We can sometimes lack the passion. You know uh people know or where I teach is largely a yeshiva for beginners or returnees to Judaism. And sometimes famous rabbis come to our sumak people who have been religious their whole lives and they'll say I wish I could be a balshua too. I wish I could also be someone who returns to Judaism with that great great passion. Right? So that should also give people a certain amount of strength because sometimes going back to the idea that sometimes a person might be ashamed of their background. A person might say or or at least they feel bad. They say, "Oh, gee, this guy was raised to be a religious Jew his whole life, and he always went to yeshiva, and I didn't start till I was 20 or 25. How can I ever catch up? It's not fair that God put me in, let's say, a non-tora environment. You know, where's the justice in that?" But the answer is a subtle answer and that is it's true that we don't have what the you know the 10th generation Yami has but it's also true that the person from Fargo North Dakota has something that the 10th generation Yami doesn't have meaning to say. Every person was put where they were put because that's what their naman needed to connect to God. Meaning even the years where you were away from Judaism or were not connected to Judaism are not dead time in a sense they are the fertilizer so to speak out of which the identity is formed. That's why again forgive me for digressing because different thoughts come to me. That's why sometimes one of the things that people do when they sometimes become religious is they want to cut off their past. They want to because they want to become part of a new community. They want to make believe that that didn't exist or they're not connected to it. And that would suggest that that's a very big mistake because if you're kind of doing chuva out of amputation, then you're an amputee. Now, an amputee, no matter how good and capable they are, is missing something. But there's a higher level of chuva where you don't amputate the past, but you use the past to form the uniqueness of who you are. Therefore, you draw on Fargo, North Dakota and you draw on those experiences to form your identity in a constructive way. And coming back to Shabbat, that may be very good example. The the the newcomer to Shabbat brings enthusiasm and passion. But the habitual Shabbat observer has a big challenge and we have to find ways to create renewal, excitement. It's not enough just to be Shabas observant although that's very very important but we have to figure out ways that Shabbat becomes that special day of our unique connection to God. You know in the states a few years ago somebody uh was trying to devise a hakically permissible way to text message on Shabbat. Very complicated theory. The truth is I'm not going to get into here. uh the theories were not hakically proper. But let's assume let's assume some genius could invent a hakically permissible way to text on chabas. Let's assume that somehow somebody figured it out. Is that what you want to do? Is that what you want to do? You want to take the Shabbat, which is the one day in which we can escape all of this and leave virtual reality in favor of actual reality. reality reality and you say, you know, I invented this great invention. I can make Shabbat just like Tuesday, huh? You know, that's the progress of 3,000 years of Jewish history. We've converted Shabbat to be everything you do during the week, you know. So, we got to we got to we got to think about this very very carefully. So, one thing I wanted to share with you is a little bit of an observation on the prayers of Shabbat. Uh, you know, let's take the Amida. Shabbat is actually very unique of all of the holidays, including Rashana, Yamipper, Pesak, Shvu, Sukus. With all of the holidays, the amida of Marav, the evening prayer, Shakis, the morning prayer, and Mina Musaf is different, but the the three shak shaka is always the same. It's identical. There is never a change between arvit to shak to mka. The only and this is even true in yam kipper. No matter what the day is, it is always the same. Mida the only sacred day in which there's a different middle in the Amida at least the beginning of it is Shabas that Shabas has a beginning paragraph that is unique for Arvit and then another one for Shak and then another one for MA. Friday night uh we begin with a paragraph that you have sanctified Shabbat and we recite that God made the world in six days and he rested. Shabbat morning we talk about Moshe bringing down the l and we recite the verses b is which is actually last week's para b is keep the shabbat and then shabas we talk about you are one and your name is one and who is like your nation Israel one unique nation in the world different a different pika a different opening paragraph for mariff Now it then has the same concluding paragraph with with one difference I'll get to uh accept our rest and it ends with purify our hearts and blessed are Shabbas who sanctify Shabas that's the same in all of them with one difference I I'll get to even on that but the first paragraph is different so I want to just share with you two different although inter related a little bit two different interpretations s about uh the different prayers of Shabbat. The first is from Ravid Avraham. David Avraham was a rish, a medieval uh rabbi in Spain who specialized in liturgy. In fact, the works of the Abu Draam as he's called uh is one of the definitive works on the Jewish calendar and the Jewish liturgy. effect of my earlier remarks about vayako pakout why they're together and when they're separate is from the aburam itself who talks about the rules about joining the parot and the aburam says a very striking idea he says that the stages of shabbat correspond to the stages of marital intimacy marital connection is considered to be a wedding Now it's interesting that in Cabala it's portrayed as a wedding on two different levels. We almost become androgynous. In one image, Shabbat is the queen and we are the male uniting with the queen of Shabbat. Shabbat Mala. In another image, we are the kala. We are the bride and we're uniting with God. So it's like God is the groom, we are the bride or we are the groom and Shabbat is the bride like that double marriage is is uh taking place. That is the basis of the song we sing Friday night from Alabets. Come my my good friend, my beloved friend, right? uh to greet the bride. P Shabbat. Let us welcome the Shabbat. Who is the bride? The bride is Shabbat. And by the way, who is the beloved friend? It's not just your next door neighbor. It's God. God is the beloved one that we're coming together with Hashem to welcome the Shabbat. Okay. Now in a in a Jewish marriage there's actually three stages although we tend to collapse them. There is what is called ausin which is which is betrothel I don't mean engagement engagement then but I mean in the time in the time of the Torah and even the time of the gamorrah the katan would give the kala a ring or something a monetary value would say you are betrod to me and she would be married but the marriage wouldn't be consummated for a year. Today we don't wait that long anymore. So stage number one is betrothal. That is called ausin. Another word for a sin is kushian sanctification. So how does the Friday night prayer begin? You have sanctified us. So Friday night is ausen the beginning of a relationship. The next which in the time of the Torah and Kazal occurred a year later but today we do it almost immediately is Nissin in which the katan brings the kala into his home. This would be the room which is symbolically the the home and that's the sim the primary simka is not ausen it's nuin and therefore the second stage is a higher level of simka. How does the chakras prayer begin? Moshe, Moshe rejoices. And the third level is actual intimacy and union. When we become one, husband and wife become one. What does the MKA say? God is one. We are one. Union with God. So this is very striking. The AuRam is looking at Shabbat as a continuous and deepening process of marriage with God in which we start with the ausin. We progress to the Nissu in and we culminate in the Yehud in the complete oneness and unity. So by the time you finish Shabbat you feel one with that's the trajectory and that's why there's a sadness right the uh customarily the theim the songs that are sungit tend to be a bit pensive slow there's a certain yearning quality because Shabbat is leaving you in Abdullah we have to of spices. Why? Because I'm losing my extra soul. I feel faint. I feel weak. I'm not ready for the challenges of the week, frankly. Uh and that's why Abdullah begins with at least for Ashkanazim. God is my salvation. I shall not be afraid. It's a puss, but what what do you mean I should not be afraid? It's it's God telling you, you know, listen. I know it's very scary to leave Shabbat and be confronted with the challenges of the world. A lot of what you think you acquired in the Shabbat, you can lose very simply. But don't be afraid. Shabbat gives you strength. Shabbat gives you courage. Shabbat gives you the ability to go on as you face the new world. Don't be afraid. Shabbat is with you. As the tradition says, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, you're still living off the spiritual aura of Shabbat. In fact, even according to if you didn't make Saturday night, you can still make it Sunday, Monday, Tuesday till sunset. Ah, but Wednesday, I'm bereft. Don't worry about that. God is giving you an advance on the coming Shabbat. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, is getting nourishment from the new Shabbat. So, you're never too far away from Shabbat, giving you that strength. So, this is the Yu Draham who looks at this as a marriage. Let me share with you a thought of the tour. The Tor gives somewhat of a different idea. He says there are three pivotal Shabbat in Jewish existence. Two of them are past and one of them is future. The first Shabbat is God created the world or God rested from creating the world. That's called Shabbat Bit. The Shabbat of the creation of the world. The second pivotal Shabbat is the Shabbat of the giving of the Torah. According to the Gomorrah and Ms Shabas, we heard the ten commandments on Shabas. The first shas was Shabas. So there's Shabas Matan Shabas, the Shabas of creation. There is the Shabbat of revelation. And then the final Shabbat is not here yet. It is the Shabbat of redemption, the messianic period, which is described indeed as Yom Shakulo Shabbat, the day of the eternal Shabbat. We haven't gotten there yet. Now many of you might be familiar with France France Rosenfik's uh famous book the star of redemption in which he actually says in his analysis again it's not I wouldn't call it a an authoritative aluckic source or orthodox source but he writes that the three pillars of redemption the three pillars of Judaism are that creation revelation redemption I'm not sure if he got this from the Torah or not but the Torah says This is the theme of the three dominics. Friday night, which brings the paragraph by from Genesis, is celebrating the Shabbat of creation. Shabbat morning when Moshe brings down the tablets. It's the Shabbat of Revelation. and Shabas MKA which talks about the unity between man and God is the Shabbat of redemption the Shabbat of the Messianic Shabbat and what how is the days of Msiah described by Zakaria we say it every three times a day in Aleno God will be one and his name will be one that's exactly what you're saying in the makabat creation, revelation, redemption. So, Avu, again, these are interrelated. I'm not saying they're totally different thoughts. Abu Dram looks at it as stages in a marriage. The Torah looks at it as moving from creation, revelation, redemption. So I would like just to add to the tour uh a certain point and that is this journey from creation revelation redemption is not just a national journey of ami Israel but it's actually a journey that each and every one of us can go through every single Shabbat. The first step to our Shabbat experience is we feel we're reborn. We're recreated. We kind of relieve all of the pressures of the work world. We're like, I'm created. I'm liberated. I'm like a newborn baby doesn't have all of the worries and anxieties. You know, Herman Welk uh Fasham was not alive anymore. He died over 100. Um he was an Orthodox Jew, very very famous writer, playwright and uh he was an Orthodox Jew and he actually wrote quite quite fine a book about uh being an Orthodox Jew. Uh this is my God and the second edition was reissued just shortly before his death. and he tells a story that um his when his first uh novel I think the Cain Mutiny was going to be produced as a Broadway play which for him was a tremendous thing. This was like 1950s whatever it was and they were working 18 hours around the clock to get it ready for Broadway and it was going to open Saturday night. So, Friday afternoon around 200 p.m., he goes to the co-producer and says, "Um, I got to go now." The co-producer figured he was going for a cup of coffee. He says, "Well, be back in 20 minutes." He says, "No, you don't understand. I'm going for 28 hours. Uh, it was going to open up 8:00 p.m. Shabas was over like 6, whatever it is. I'll be here like an hour before opening." So he he says the co-producer didn't even know what to say. He just didn't understand how can you just leave 25 hours or whatever before this play is going to open. And Herman Welk said it that was the first time he realized he had been shabas observant but he realized what shabas is. Shabbas liberates you. Unless it's literally a matter of life and death, in which case life and death override Shabbat. But if it's not life or death, just say no. The world cannot make its demands on me. That's the first stage. Creation. I'm created. I don't have those past responsibilities. Ah, but that's not enough. Just like Passover Pes is meaningless unless it's connected to which is commitment to God in the Shabbat. You see the same idea. Being liberated from your weekly chores is a beautiful thing. By the way, this may explain why people are so physically exhausted Friday night because it's like almost a universal law of nature because the work has been lifted and the adrenaline can get turned off and as a result your natural state of exhaustion comes to the four because you don't have that artificial push that's pushing you to keep on going. Well, I have to say if you're a rabbi, it might be a little different, but okay. Uh, Shabas is a working. Okay, well, I'm not gonna gripe here. Okay, not gonna use this as a gripe session, but okay. But be but here is the relationship between Friday night and Shabbat day. Friday night, I'm liberated. Shabas day, I'm ready to focus my liberation towards a commitment to God's Torah, which is revelation. Again, it's very symmetrical to the relationship of PES and PES is freedom. Is commitment. You need the two that go together. This, I would suggest, is the inner meaning of creation and li I'm sorry. Yeah. Creation, liberation, and revelation. Now, we then come to redemption. Now, redemption of course refers to the messianic redemption, but I think there's also an individualistic idiosyncratic redemption that's involved here. That is it is said in the name of many many masters. Some say it in the name of breast, some say in the name of the balm. Uh that the greatest distance in the world is between the head and the heart right the head may know many truths. Intellectually I may know many many things but I haven't yet brought it into my heart to move me emotionally and spiritually. And in many ways when we talk about redemption from galut galut can exist on many many levels. There is the galut from the land. There is the galot of estrangement from family. There is arangement within yourself separation from God. The inner disconnect between my mind and my heart. And when we talk about unity and in the Mina, we're talking about achieving a redemption in which all of the disunities come together in a harmonious home. And therefore, the tour's journey of creation to revelation to redemp to redemption is the trajectory that each and every one of us can go through. Every Shabbat we start with being liberated. We then focus on being committed and directed and we then culminate with integration, wholesomeness, bringing everything together in a harmonious whole. You know the expression uh a person is in the zone. Uh sometimes uh it may happen relatively rarely. You just feel you're in the right place. And even if you're working very hard, it could be could be in a project, could be anything. You're working very hard. But you don't even feel you have to eat. You don't even have to sleep. You're just you're in the right place. And that happens when everything is in sync. Everything's synchronized. The emotions, the mind, the heart. You're working at a different level because you're connecting to God with all your cylinders, not just, you know, hanging on here and there. And that is the final gift of Shabbat, at least in potential. I'm not saying we reach it that often, but at least in potential uh Shabbat is the time when you kind of integrate and bring everything together. Now these thoughts are just part of um you know an infinite richness of the Shabbat. But I think it just reminds us that we can't take it for granted. Yes, Shabbat has a role in sleeping. Sleeping is a good thing in Shabbat too. It says uh and I remember when I came you know as a kid you know kids don't sleep really in the afternoon. So uh when I came to yeshiva near Israel in Baltimore as a ninth grader I had never slept on Shabba's afternoon before. And then Shabbas, I I still remember my first Shabbat, I was absolutely going nuts because nobody was every single person in yeshiva was taking a nap for Shabbat. I was wandering the halls like looking for somebody to talk to. There was nobody, right? So sleeping was very foreign to me. But by the second week, I I I picked up the habit, you know. Uh so uh I was a quick learner in that in that in that way. So yes, Shabbat does have of course rest, sleep, eat well, all of that is is part of the joy absolutely. But at the same time recognize the enormous spirituality of what Shabbat can give you and never ever ever take it for granted. Hashem says to us, I have given you a precious treasure in your midst and Shabbat is its name. So may all of us merit, I speaking to myself, may all of us merit to appreciate the matana tova that hashem has given us. So thank you. I do have to run, but thank you so much for coming and have a shabbat. [Music] You see your de [Music]